NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The City of New Rochelle is hiring a consultant to establish, manage and operate outdoor “pop-up” facilities at one or two, centrally located public spaces in downtown New Rochelle, Memorial Plaza and Anderson Street Plaza. The public spaces have been provisionally named “New Ro’s Pops”.
The announcement comes on the heals of a recent spate of incidents involving roving bands of teens assaulting and robbing pedestrians in the downtown area.
“New Ro Pops allows us to leverage our recent investments in surveillance camera equipment so we can deploy a combination of technology and trained officers to keep an eye on known troublemakers,” said New Rochelle Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll. “It’s all part of keeping New Rochelle the safest small city in America.”
“New Ro’s Pops” will offer youths an upbeat, well-lit place to congregate in the downtown area during evening hours resulting in increased safety in other sections of downtown. Residents wishing to shop, dine or stroll in the downtown area would be encouraged to avoid the New Ro Pop Zones.
The concept is similar to the Safe Zone programs initiated by Craigslist.
Craigslist’s safety page has recently begun to encourage users to exchange “high value” transactions such as cars or jewelry at local police stations. In these zones, police are on duty, and there’s usually 24-hour surveillance. SafeTradeStations.com, a site where you can find local police departments that offer safe zones for transactions.
“Programs like New Ro Pops have been shown to work around the country,” said John Earvin, a security consultant from TriJohn Security. “If I were a betting man — and I am — I would expect visitors to the downtown area will be a lot safer with the Pop Up Zones.”
Carroll, who often frequents restaurants in the downtown area for extended periods of time during the work day, offered visitors to downtown New Rochelle a lighthearted warning, “If you don’t want to get ‘popped’ steer clear of the ‘New Ro Pops’”.
Pop Zones in Other Cities Are Turning a Profit!
The truly progressive cities such as NYC and Seattle have realized a windfall from these “pop” zones. Once established, the zones are marketed towards the out of town tourist who wants to immerse themselves into the “experience” of big city life. For a fee, tourists can safely find out what it’s like to be robbed or verbally assaulted or be hounded by panhandlers all in a controlled, monitored environment. The “thugs” as they’re affectionately called undergo a rigorous training program supported by police and social engineering specialists to insure the accuracy of the experience. When it’s over everyone has a good laugh.
Said one official, ” …it’s a win-win for all Involved. The kids get real life training, the tourist gets to tell a whopper of a story when they get home and the city will make hundreds of thousands of dollars to offset development costs”
Where do I sign up!